Strange glass tomb
by Song of Stillness
Summary: "My heart hammered in my chest as I turned to look at him again... "What do you mean?" I stuttered, my mouth dry as papyrus as his fingers moved gently from my cheek to my lips." Set in the Red Queen, in the Beforetime City. Elspeth and Dameon are trapped in a small, confined space and certain revelations come about of their own accord.


**Strange glass tomb**

**Author's note:** Decided to brush up and post a couple of Obernewtyn fanfics I found gathering dust on my computer in celebration of the _The Red Queen_ coming out this year – yay!

Yet another Dameon/Elspeth confession. I seem to not be able to get enough of these – sad, I know... I can't believe how many I've written – not all of them are up on here.

**Scenario:** A made-up _Red Queen_ scenario that would occur sometime in the first half in the Beforetime city. Short, somewhat sad. Dameon and Elspeth are trapped in a small, enclosed space in the beforetime city and things happen of their own accord.

o0o

"Where are we?" I heard Dameon's urgent exclamation from somewhere behind me, his breath coming out in short gasps, but I was too panicked to answer. We had been running for quite some time in darkness along the grey endless corridors, the piercing siren in our ears and had arrived at what I feared was a dead-end.

"I don't know - I can't find any openings..." I began to feel my way around the smooth, cold walls, my hands shaking but I couldn't seem to find one opening or even a niche in the glass. _Damn_ the Beforetimers and their perfect, alien architecture. The strange make-shift light pulsed an eerie green, lighting up the chamber only just enough so I could make out Dameon's face; pale and worried in the gloom.

I slid to the floor to catch my breath, my heart beating against my chest like a frightened baby bird.

We were trapped.

I reached out into the darkness and Dameon gently took my hand in his own.

"Elspeth..." he whispered, dropping to the ground beside me. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head, not remembering that he could not see the action and struggled to fight back tears, concentrating on my breathing. I had tried. I had tried _so hard_. I did not know what else I could do. We were stuck here... perhaps forever. And those mindless – _things_ – were after us.

"Elspeth girl - don't lose heart, I've got you." Dameon held my hand and I knew beyond a doubt that he was emanating powerful waves of calm and assurance right through me. I turned my head slightly to look at him incredulously. How was it that he could still be so positive, so _steadfast_, after all that had happened? Looking at him carefully I noticed a fierce brightness on his face and a calm flowed through me.

"I can't help but worry for the others..." I gasped, feeling light-headed. "What if we never get out of here? What if we can't find them? What about the task Dameon..." My heart lurched at all the horrors I would inflict on the world if I were to fail.

"You cannot always hope to live out others expectations of you – no matter what the cause," Dameon said softly. He squeezed my hand. "You have done all you can for now Elspeth... And if there is more to be done, fate will provide the way." Somewhere in the distance another alarm went off and we both stiffened and sat up.

"We will die here," I murmured, the keening, metallic wail ringing in my ears.

Dameon turned to me with a hard look on his face. "Do not dwell on such things Elspeth," he said with faint reproval. "Be the woman I know; the woman who always, always in the past rose up to the task, the one who fought for our rights and our freedom, who cheated death more than once, who stirs the hearts and minds of many..."

"You sound like Matthew," I almost laughed, despite myself. He gave a small smile and I noticed pain creep into the corner of his mouth.

"Oh _Lud_. How I miss him," I sighed. "I know you do too..."

Dameon nodded and whispered, "And yet somehow, his presence is tangible in everything we do." An unreadable look passed over his face, his blind eyes seeing into the darkness. I noticed the firm, determined set jaw, the dark hair that flopped over his eyes, the endearing, beloved face that I'd always taken for granted and for some peculiar reason, thought of Rushton...

_You'll never see him again_, a voice told me savagely and I flinched.

And yet here in this time, in this place, I felt strangely vulnerable, as if our near death had altered my perception on things. My heart hammered in my chest as I turned to look at him again and an unsettling feeling curdled in my stomach that brought back an image of light on tepid water and Dragon's red hair spilling gently over his strong arms. He had been so gentle… I fought furiously to push it away.

"Elspeth –?" I heard his soft inquiry and I realised with slight embarrassment that he must have felt some of what I'd been projecting. I buried my face in my arms, trying to contain myself, remembering vividly the time I had tried to express my gratitude and he had pushed me away.

There was silence for a time and I looked up to see a queer, somewhat sad expression on his face. "Perhaps in this moment, in this place of death, it is only fitting that I should tell you something... something which I have harboured for a long time… " He spoke softly.

I blinked, confused. His white-blind eyes seemed to read right through me as always and he was so still, so quiet. He must have felt my confusion then for he laughed softly and reached out to touch my cheek.

"My dear Elspeth, how _is_ it that you do not know?"

I looked at him, my heart in my mouth. "What do you mean?" I stuttered, my mouth dry as papyrus as his fingers moved gently from my cheek to my lips.

We sat there for a moment, precariously aware that we were at the edge of some barrier, some final turning point. The darkness was almost tangibly thick. But it wasn't until he leant in, his soft breath brushing against my cheek that my heart understood and treacherously, welcomed it.

I was insanely aware, too, as his lips touched mine of how _different_ he was to Rushton. Where Rushton was fire and passion, Dameon was like still, cool, running water – calm, sweet and yet at the same time incredibly sensual. I felt his quickened heart-beat and his breathing, his hands reached up to touch my face and my hair.

We broke apart, stunned for a moment until he looked down in sudden shyness, unable to register the reality of what just happened. "Elspeth –" he began, but before he could even frame his response, I pulled him to me and kissed him again. I felt his strong arms come around me and I was struck at just how powerful his mind was. I told myself, it was because I wanted to block out the alarm and my frightening sense of inadequacy but every rationalisation in that moment did not make sense except for immediate need, comfort and desire.

I departed the world for a moment as light and free as a drift of air. I was watching Cassy struggling against the wind on a hillside, carrying a blue light, a Beforetime city stretched out below her. I wondered if she was watching me in this moment, just as I was watching her…

I saw Hannah and Jacob at the Reichler Clinic, stooped over a beforetime machine and I thought of all of Jacob's carefully inscribed love letters to a woman who perhaps never loved him back. I trembled and stopped as I realised exactly what it was that Dameon had been hiding from me all this time. As much as I could float on forever in forgetfulness and warmth and desire I had to face the truth before it utterly and completely swamped my senses.

Dameon loved me, _really_ loved me – more than I'd possibly imagined, more than I could ever love him back…

"I – I'm sorry..." I stuttered, pulling away, completely overwhelmed and slightly breathless.

Dameon's hands trembled and he put me a little way from him, his face stricken. "I understand only too well." And his voice took on a bitter note. "I, who love you more than life, I - who will never have you." I looked at him then. _Really_ looked at him, at the boy who had grown into a man beside me all these years; the endearing face, the lips I had kissed and the gentle hands I had taken comfort from many a time; my dearest friend and was struck with the frightening thought that I didn't really know him – not _really_. I knew Dameon, the comforter, the advisor, the confidante but Dameon the _man_ was a stranger to me.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked somewhat reproachfully, trying to ignore the fluttering in my body, still not sure how to approach this strange new turn of events.

"It would not have been right..."

"... What with Rushton's love being what it was and you following soon after... _Elspeth_, I kept my silence for a reason. What could I have done? I could not have forced you-"

"But could you?" I asked almost harshly, before realising what I was saying. And for a moment, I recalled the sheer power of his mind and Talent that I had but a small glimpse of. "Could you have _made _me love you?"

He was silent for a time, his brow furrowed- almost angry but at himself or me I couldn't tell. "No," he admitted finally. And then his face saddened a little. "Elspeth... do you really believe I would have done that to you?"

"I am sorry..." I whispered again, feeling oddly sad for testing him. After all, it was I who encouraged the kiss. This revelation would change things.

"No – I am sorry Elspeth," he murmured quietly. "This only adds to your burden. Perhaps – perhaps I should not have spoken." He turned away with a faint curse and I sat, numb, the sound of my heartbeat deafeningly loud in my ears, the green light flickering in my eyes.

A silence followed that tore at my heart.

When I could bear it no longer I tentatively reached for his hand. After all, Dameon had never been anything less than the most constant and beautiful of friends. After a while he squeezed my fingers gently in response and I blinked back tears of relief. If we were to die tonight, it would be good to know that there had been no contention between us.

"What do we do now?" he asked, softly.

"We wait," I whispered.

In my mind's eye, I could still see Cassy carrying a blue light up a hillside, the reflections of a thousand Beforetime lights scattered out below… And Jacob's eyes as he had looked at Hannah with such warmth and love… but it was the kiss that played over and over in my mind, soft, sensual, hauntingly deep that carried with it just the smallest sense of foreboding.

After all, those that loved me and who I loved in return always tended to suffer some unseen consequence.

I closed my eyes against the darkness and the unknown. We stayed like that, silent, holding hands, the green light sputtering and dying above us reflected in our strange glass tomb, the keen wail of an alarm somewhere in the distance. Waiting, waiting, straining to hear approaching footsteps, waiting for our fate.

o0o


End file.
